Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon has been ruled out for at least the first four games of the season, but he might be out a lot longer than that.
General Manager Ryan Poles was asked today if Gordon will play for the Bears. Poles answered, “I don’t know.”
“I would hope so,” Poles continued. “I still have hope there. He’s going to have to continue to work hard and come back to play football again.”
Poles emphasized the need for Gordon, who was out all summer with a calf injury, to push through the discomfort of rehabilitation.
“Any time you have an injury and you’re coming back from something, there’s discomfort that you have to push through. And that’s what it comes down to. So we haven’t been able to get over that hump and we’re not progressing as fast as we would like. That’s really all I have to say about that,” Poles said.
The Bears signed Gordon to a three-year, $40 million contract extension last year, and Gordon played in just three games last season as he struggled with groin, hamstring and calf injuries. Those might prove to be the only three games Gordon ever plays in a Bears uniform.
Bears Clips
Bears General Manager Ryan Poles announced several roster moves during a press conference on Tuesday.
The team is placing safety Coby Bryant and tight end Hayden Large on injured reserve. Both players will be eligible to return later this season, although Bryant had knee surgery that could keep him out for the entire year.
Poles said the team is filling the roster spots by bringing back defensive lineman James Lynch and linebacker Jack Sanborn after releasing them over the weekend.
Lynch signed with the Bears this offseason after appearing in 34 games for the Titans over the last two seasons. Sanborn spent his first three seasons with the Bears and returned to the team in March after playing for the Cowboys in 2025.
Kyler Gordon will not be in the Bears’ defensive backfield for at least the first four games of the 2026 season.
The team announced that Gordon will remain on the PUP list into the regular season while revealing their initial 53-man roster on Sunday. Gordon dealt with a number of injuries last year and has been out with a calf injury this summer.
Linebacker Noah Sewell and defensive lineman Shemar Turner will also remain on the PUP list. Running back Brittain Brown, linebacker Tony Fields, defensive back Jaylon Jones, and wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud have all been placed on injured reserve.
The Bears also announced that they have released running back Salvon Ahmed, tight end Stephen Carlson, defensive end Marcus Davenport, offensive lineman Wesley French, defensive lineman James Lynch, wide receiver Scotty Miller, linebacker Jon Rhattigan, linebacker Jack Sanborn, and offensive lineman Jedrick Wills.
They have waived wide receivers Maurice Alexander, Kaden Davis, Omari Kelly, and JP Richardson; offensive linemen Kiran Amegadjie, Caden Barnett, Kyle Hergel, Jaren Kump, and Mason Murphy; defensive backs Beanie Bishop, Anthony Johnson, Dontae Manning, Deantre Prince, Marlen Sewell, Terell Smith, and William Wright; linebackers Antonio Grier, Ruben Hyppolite, and Wayne Matthews; tight end Qadir Ismail; defensive lineman Jeremiah Martin; and quarterback Miller Moss.
In addition to the cuts, the Bears announced that they have activated punter Tory Taylor.
Tackle Jedrick Wills, a former first-round pick of the Browns, sat out the 2025 season in an effort to get healthy before resuming his career.
He eventually selected the Bears. But the Bears are not selecting him for a spot on the 53-man roster.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, Wills will be released.
The 10th overall pick in the 2020 draft has 58 regular-season appearances with 57 starts. Because he’s a vested veteran, he will become a free agent once his release is official.
Other teams that hosted Wills before he signed in Chicago were the Patriots and Lions.
Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter is on the move ahead of Sunday afternoon’s deadline to set 53-man rosters around the league.
According to multiple reports, the Bears have agreed to trade Dexter to the Falcons. Cornerback Clark Phillips and a fifth-round pick will head back to Chicago.
Dexter was a 2023 second-round pick by the Bears. He started all 19 games that the Bears played last season and had 48 tackles, six sacks and two fumble recoveries. Grady Jarrett, Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street, James Lynch, and sixth-round pick Jordan van den Berg remain on the depth chart as options on the interior.
The Falcons added Phillips as a 2023 fourth-rounder and he played in 27 games in his first two seasons, but he only played in one game last year due to a triceps injury. He was vying for a backup role in Atlanta.
Bears rookie wide receiver Zavion Thomas missed the first two preseason games with a knee injury. When he finally got on the field on Saturday, he put on a show.
Thomas caught a pass from Tyson Bagent and raced 97 yards to the end zone on his very first NFL play, and finished his first preseason game with five catches for 140 yards, plus a 31-yard punt return and a 22-yard kickoff return.
Asked if anyone had a chance of catching him on his long touchdown, the speedy Thomas said he didn’t know which Titans player was chasing him, but answered, “Nah, he didn’t have a chance.”
Thomas said that even while he couldn’t practice because of his knee, older players were helping him prepare for the moment when he would be on the field, so he expected to play well once he got medical clearance.
“It felt amazing. The preparation put into it, it was something that I expected,” Thomas said.
Thomas didn’t put up big numbers during his four years of college football (two at Mississippi State and two at LSU), but he put up an eye-popping number at the Scouting Combine: 4.28 seconds in the 40-yard dash. That got him plenty of attention, and the Bears took a chance on him in the third round.
Bagent knows Thomas’s speed is a huge asset to the Bears’ offense.
“Give Zavion a chance and then you’re able to see that speed, which is a big reason why he’s here,” Bagent said. “I think that was Zavion Thomas’s first play in the NFL, so greatest start in NFL history.”
There is some positive news on the injury front for the Titans.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, receiver Wan’Dale Robinson is not believed to have suffered a concussion after he was hit during a joint practice with the Bears this week.
While the team will continue to monitor Robinson, the early indications have been positive.
Titans head coach Robert Saleh called out Chicago safety Xavier Woods for what he termed a “cheap” hit.
Woods played for the Titans in 2025 and was released shortly after the club hired Saleh earlier this year.
Robinson, 25, signed a four-year deal with Tennessee in March, reuniting with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who previously served as Giants head coach. A second-round pick in 2022, Robinson appeared in 54 games for New York over his first four seasons. He caught 92 passes for 1,014 yards with four touchdowns in 2025.
Titans head coach Robert Saleh gave an update on wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson after Robinson made an early exit from Thursday’s joint practice with the Bears.
Saleh said that Robinson is being evaluated for a concussion after taking a hit from Bears safety Xavier Woods during the session. The hit drew a response from Robinson’s teammates on the field and from Saleh while he was at the podium for his press conference.
Saleh called the hit by Woods “cheap.” Woods played for the Titans last season and was released shortly after Saleh was hired this year. Robinson signed with the Titans as a free agent in March.
Robinson will go into the concussion protocol if doctors find he suffered a concussion Thursday. That would keep him out for several days, but would leave ample time for him to be cleared before Week 1.
Despite the Bears saying last month that they are moving forward with plans to build a new stadium in Indiana, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says Illinois is not out of the running.
Goodell told reporters at Wednesday’s owners’ meeting that the former racetrack in Arlington Heights, Illinois, that the Bears purchased in 2023 could still be the team’s next home.
“There’s no specific timetable from my standpoint, other than we know that they are looking at the alternate groups, Indiana or Arlington Heights,” Goodell said, via Jarrett Bell of USA Today. “We want to make sure that Arlington Heights and Illinois have an opportunity, as well as Indiana, to put their best foot forward.”
Goodell said he recently met with Illinois officials. Proposals for Illinois taxpayers to pay for infrastructure around the Bears’ new stadium haven’t gone anywhere, while Indiana is willing to spend tax money to attract the Bears.
“I’m involved in a lot of stadium efforts,” Goodell said. “It’s not unusual for me to be involved in conversations with either public officials or others. Or our staff. There are important decisions, not just for the communities but for teams and the NFL. So these are important things for us.”
Remaining in the city of Chicago, where the Bears have played for more than a century, does not appear to be an option. The question is whether the Bears will move to a Chicago suburb in Illinois or in Indiana.
The Bears’ stadium saga has been going on for years, and the team’s recent comments seemed to suggest that Indiana would be the Bears’ next home. Goodell sounds more willing to give Illinois time to come up with a deal to keep the Bears in the state.
The Bears opened training camp without certainty about their starter at left tackle and they have not put it to bed.
Braxton Jones has gotten the most work with the first team with Theo Benedet replacing him during the team’s second preseason game. Ozzy Trapilo has returned to practice on a limited basis, but it remains unclear when he will be cleared for full activities and both Jedrick Wills and Kiran Amegadjie have been moved out of the competition.
All of those moving pieces have left head coach Ben Johnson without a final answer about who will be on the field for Week 1.
“That’s still an ongoing spot. It’s a hot spot for us,” Johnson said in a Tuesday press conference. “Obviously, we talk about it almost every time I’m up here ,and yet I don’t know that we are 100 percent sold on who that guy is going to be for Carolina yet. We’re going to still work through it. That’s where today is going to be huge for us. Thursday is going to be huge for us. And Saturday is going to be huge for us as well.”
Thursday is a joint practice with the Titans ahead of Saturday’s game between the two teams. It will be an opportunity for Jones to lock down the top job and put the debate to rest for the time being.
